Teyaki Uchiha stared off into the middle distance, expression solemn. Despite the perfectly temperate weather outside, with shinobi and birds alike flying by his hospital window, the small room retained a gloomy air about it. He was now a widower, as of two days ago. He was now also the Clan Head, despite being a civilian.

And honestly? It was all too soon, all too unexpected a responsibility. As far as chain of command went in the Clan, Teyaki would have never been the Head unless, like the situation was now, literally all of the other canadates had been killed off. Even now, it was only his age that allowed him to retain this position, Akari a close second with her Shigaran eyes.

Still, it was his responsibility to be the guiding hand and keep everything tied down until Akari was suitably prepared and asked to take the reins of the Clan leadership or Hina reached Jonin… Which Teyaki had a feeling wouldn't be happening for a long time, if at all.

The former simply because Akari would have her hands full keeping track of the familiar day-to-day responsibilties (but that was just a front, the real reason was that Teyaki had seen how she had trembled like a leaf in the wind when the young woman returned from the "meeting"… Those rotten pack of vultures, utterly disgusting). The later was through no fault of Hina own, as the middle Akado sister had a target on her back now. A target that wouldn't go away anytime soon, not after the stunt the two Akado sisters had pulled. As such, the role would be passed over to young Sasuke once he reached said rank of Jonin; the public face of the Uchiha, even if the boy would turn to his older cousins for guidance.

Teyaki planned to teach Akari all he knew, about wagashi (senbei specifically, of course) and expected duties of a Clan head (after he figured it out for the most part himself first). He hoped that Akari could pass on this knowledge later to the lad once he grew up a little more first… Something Teyaki might not live to see; life expectancies were hard to predict in this time and age.

In any case, he strongly hoped the loving guidance of the Akado sisters would help sort Sasuke out and promote a healthy growing enviroment for the newly orphaned Uchiha children.

Akado… Teyaki supposed he shouldn't distinguish the girls as such anymore, at least for posterity's sake, but habits were hard to break after nearly twenty years. The girls were always considered one of the clan, family is family is family, but they had been set apart the moment their mother coupled with their father… It would have been so much easier if Mitsune had just married that man, that no-clan eternal genin would have been smoothly absorbed into the Clan and all this headache wouldn't exist. No confusion where surnames were concerned. But, here they were.

"Uncle," Akari murmured, gathering Teyaki's wandering thoughts with a blink and refocusing eyes. Her tone was subdued and she was still not quite able to look him in the eye. He grimanced to himself, clearly he would have to have a long talk with her concerning the survivor's guilt she clearly felt… Akari swallowed hard several times to gather the words need before continuing, "I have been informed that the Compound is now considered… all clear, and that any further undertaking in securing or sealing property is our responsibilty."

"I see," the older man sighed wearily, his wizened face sagging in grief. All he could think of was his wife. Did Uruchi suffer…? He wondered morosely if it would be too much to ask of monsters to be merciful in their murders. To think that Itachi… The preteen had been the gentlest boy Teyaki had ever met, always so placid and sweet-natured… What had those red eyes seen and remembered to drive him to this state? What price had he paid for that powerful dojutsu?

"And I don't suppose they mentioned the state of… of the deceased?" His throat was dry, no amount of swallowing or clearing it could remove the dread. The fearful wonder if all with the Eyes were doomed with the threat of madness. Itachi hadn't been the first to snap in such a self-distructive and explosive way, in the years Teyaki had been alive, just the first to aim it at the Clan (at the people he loved, instead of those he hated…).

Akari's chin wobbled slightly, expression rather bleak and tearful. "All the bodies were c-cataloged and burned… The eyes of every last Uchiha found had been slashed and unrecoverable." The young woman's voice was faint and even, as emotional distanced in tone as a person could get. Her lower lip's trembling worsened before being bitten in a troubled manner. "They… didn't mention when the service would be held, just said to come down to the morgue at the earliest convience to… to help identify some of the deceased. The civilian ones. Um, all the shinobi, police nin, and the… the Academy-aged… were already identified, apparently…"

"Makes sense, they would already be registered under the Village's military workforce, with photo ID's and serial numbers. They would just need to match the face to the name," Teyaki explained grimly. "Us civilians on the other hand… generally we have a birth certificate and maybe a mariage one. No pictures… Family and friends were relied on to identify the body if officials couldn't."

"…oh…" Akari's voice was small, and the wretched look in her doe-eyes made her look young. She wetted her lips before asking hoarsely, "What should I say if I don't —" the young woman tried to swallow a sob, but was only half successfully, the thickness in her voice made the rest of the question trail out wetly, "— recognize their face…?"

The elderly shop-owner closed his eyes with a grimace, unwilling to say how he wondered the same directly. Hoarsely, he murmured, "Have them wheel me down to the morgue then, I'm certain I can figure out the rest… A lot of our clansmen I grew up with, and many others visited the Senbei…"

"But, Uncle, what if you don't either? We can't… We can't just leave them unknown!" Pale hands trembled in her lap, and even clasping them tightly didn't stop the shaking. Tears stained the lavender dress in damp spots.

His heart broke for her, his young "niece", and his eyes swam uncomfortably for several long seconds, vision bluring before slowly clearing. This, at least, could be easily answered, while many of the unsaid and far more emotionally-insidious ones would not (whywhywhywhywhy).

"Records," he croaked before coughing to fix the hoarseness. Teyaki continued when Akari turned her head in his direction, her tear-filled gaze uncomprehending, "The Police Force had meticulous records on all Clan members: their names, where they lived, occupations, tithes given to the Clan, and much more I'm sure…"

"But pictures…"

"What family does not keep pictures in their own homes?" Teyaki countered quietly.

Akari remained silent, those particular fears pacified, but her distress from them not. There was the sound of a child crying somewhere outside the room in the hospital, and long uncomfortable beat passed.

While not unusual to hear in the building, all kinds of sounds and noises, the crying was too close. And distressed wailing and gasping and choking sounded far too near and young. Pleading for comfort without words. Too close. One room over.

A long uncomfortable beat had passed before Akari bolted out of her chair to the room of the elder Uchiha children, as the sound of more children crying picked up in concert. Teyaki remained on the bed, tense and feeling helpless.

Damn him and his bum leg.

Hina didn't know what she was expecting, exactly, but walking into the compound two days (almost three nights) after the Massacre and seeing it so…empty, really drove home the point that everyone above the age of eight (excluding Big Sister Akari, Uncle Teyaki, and herself) was dead.

The finality of it, the completely remorseless truth of it all, shook her deeply; and the noirette had to take a long several minutes to compose herself before she could trudge forward once more. Check store and house attached first, before getting fretting over the rest, Hina told herself firmly. You don't know what the inside looks like yet, and it's not like you haven't seen worse before, so no losing your head…!

Hina ignored the little voice in her head that whispered traitorously that "before" hadn't been her family.

She didn't have much time, only a handful of hours before all of the children awoke. The genjitsu releasing its hold in the order of the victim it was cast on — presumably exactly seventy-two hours later. Sasuke would be the last one; he would wake sometime in the late evening, presumably an hour or two before midnight, so Hina had until then to discern the state of the compound before rushing back to the hospital.

Alone.

Not that there was any one else that could go with her, Akari and the wheelchair-bound Teyaki had the onerous task of trying to keep at least some semblance of calm with the youngest children crying for mothers and fathers as well as the older ones asking more pointed questions (and also wanting to know where their parents were). From what Hina could see, there was an astounding lack of nightmare-induced trauma, or any recollection of That Night. Which, might have merely been a blessing in disguise, but really made Hina's Shinobi Senses twinge in suspicion.

It was obvious a powerful one was used to sustain a three day coma, even if it was only a subcategory or bastardization, and Uchiha were renown throughout the nations for their nigh-inescapable visual genjitsus from their famous Sharingan Eyes. Visual. Genjitsus. The children had to have seen something to anchor it for that long. It didn't necessarily have to be nightmarish, some genjitsus could be purposely made pleasant to make the victim willfully prolong them (like a dream you never want to wake up from and would sleep forever to keep it if you could...) where with the more, ah, unpleasant ones only made you want to end them instantly, escape. The point was, Hina just couldn't imagine a kin-slayer taking pity on some children and giving them sweet dreams while he brutally murdered all they cared for and loved.

It didn't sit right for her, a disconnect.

And just why did he spare these select few, when all that spared them was being below the age of six (excluding Sasuke of course...)? What could possibly be the point?

Not to mention, it was a complete anti-thesis to Itachi Uchiha's known persona. Up until the past few months, literally the whole Clan and anyone who had heard of the prodigy had nothing but good things to say about him. Most notably his professionalism, politeness, and personality... and none of it screamed "killer" or "unstable". It's not like the Uchiha were strangers to madness; it had cropped up many a time before and precautions had been fine tuned to detect such risks. It was possible results could be faked but... Hina just couldn't make sense of it. Why now? If it was power he was looking to achieve, wouldn't he pursue it on the battlefield with the security of Konoha and the Clan behind him? They had all been raised and taught that a ninja was their strongest when they had others to stand behind them. They lived in the Village known for it's teamwork, the strongest in all the Elemental Nations because of this belief...

Something was missing, and it all had to have started within the last several months. Hina planned to get to the bottom of it, one way or the other, for both her Clan to have peace and to prevent another tragedy from happening again. Out of all of them, Sasuke would be the biggest flight risk.

"Ah." Hina murmured.

She was there.

A/N: So.

Sorry for the long wait, I just recently moved to my new apartment and eased into working at my new job over ten hours away from my closest family member. Not to mention, finally met my boyfriend of nearly two years and his family overseas to prove that I am real and do exist and not a 40-year-old pervert living in a basement. Or a bunch of Italian(? For some reason?) men wanting to steal money and/or organs...

His older sister has a particularly vivid imagination of me being a catfish, but I'm cute and real so ha, I win.

Now to convince my family when he visits in spring...

Ah, long distances relationships. Whoo.